Well, where to begin….
I guess, in short, I felt like this past Sunday at the Goodlife Fitness [Royal] Victoria Marathon was a pretty solid race for me.
I had been feeling a different sense of nerves coming into this race. Maybe a bit of fear (a slight fear of a self-perceived “failure” perhaps?). I’m not 100% sure, but I suppose I really only say failure for lack of a better word. It’s more the sense that I know the day is going to come that I might not set a new PB, and even if it’s a great race, I think that part of me will be slightly disappointed. I guess I just always want every race to be better than the last – make sense? Anyway, I could be completely wrong about how I will feel when the day comes, but I obviously wasn’t ready to find out this week. Thankfully, I didn’t have to. I finished with a chip time (and a new PB) of 1:50:51.
I got up fairly early in order to partake in my regular pre-race ritual of cereal and a small cup of coffee. Following that, I headed down to my parent’s place to meet them and Kirsten for the drive into town. After a quick pit-stop at Mom’s office to use the loo it was time to join the thousands of other runners and wait for the starter's pistol.
As I stood silently among the masses, I saw an acquaintance/friend (future-training-partner?) a few feet away. I knew we ran a similar pace, and thought about having a chat and seeing if she wanted to run together, but then I remembered some of the horrible races I’ve had because I’ve tried to run someone else’s race (the 2010 TC 10k sure springs to mind). So with visions of my crappy TC 10k dancing in my head, I decided to stay put, be a bit unsocial and just run my own race.
[Of Note: After the race I checked out my acquaintance/friend’s time, and she finished about 30 seconds back from me, so we probably would have been great running partners for this race….].
I felt like I started out at a pretty good pace. I was comfortable and relaxed, but not too too relaxed. I had written some pace times on my hand as I usually do, but quickly realized I had written them down wrong (don’t ask), so after about 2k I decided to ignore my watch and just run. I’ve been doing a lot of my training on perceived effort lately, and right now, it seems to be working for me.
Down Cook Street I enjoyed listening to the people around me chat, and even had a few good chuckles from some girls behind me who were convinced it was “all down hill from here to the water” – I guess they forgot about that little loop through Beacon Hill.
Near Ross Bay Cemetery I got to see a full moon! Some poor woman didn’t make it to the porta-potty and squatted right on the side of the road. The guy beside me let out a loud grumbly “that’s disgusting” but I thought it was kinda funny – or maybe I was just thankful it wasn’t me. I also think she probably thought she was a little more hidden by the bushes than she actually was, haha. The things you see on race day!
From 10k through to the turn around I started to see more and more people that I know, which came as a nice distraction from the actual running. Back onto Dallas Road, I was a bit taken aback by the headwind that seemed to have come out of nowhere and I definitely had to re-check myself mentally and just remember to push through. I did a lot of training runs along Dallas Road this year compared to previous years and think it was quite helpful to know how long the “climbs” were and when the downs started, etc.
As I approached Ogden Point I saw my friend Robyn on the side of the road. She is a great cheerleader and definitely gave me a little boost. I knew it was just a few more corners and a couple more km’s and I would be at the end… happily finished for the day.
With about 500m to go I looked at my watch for the first time since the half way marker and noticed I was just under 1:50. (I will admit I kicked myself a little for not looking sooner – who knows, maybe I could have gone sub 1:50?). That said, I did try to pick it up a bit for the last little stretch past the crowds and made it across the line feeling pretty strong.
Once I grabbed some food and chocolate milk, my parent’s and I headed out toward Oak Bay to see Kirsten on the marathon route. It was a lot of fun cheering on all the runners (my Dad is the best cheer-er out there, without question). We managed to see Kirsten 3 times before heading back to the finish line. She looked really strong each time we saw her, and the finish was no different. She finished in 3:50:57.
So, big congratulations to everyone who raced and of course, thank you to all the many volunteers who helped make the day a great one. Oh, and the weather – thank you for not raining on us!
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